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West Moors
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| ... A RAILWAY IS PROPOSED: On the 2nd February, 1844, Charles Castleman, a Wimborne solicitor, proposed that a railway be built linking Dorchester, Wareham, Wimborne Minster, Ringwood & Brockenhurst, the principal communities of southwest Hampshire & southern Dorset, with the London & South Western Railway [ earlier the London & Southampton Railway ] at Southampton, and having facilities to reach the port of Poole. This was right at the start of that period later christened the "Railway Mania" (roughly 1844-1854). [ There was also a scheme, not realised, to press on westward to Exeter - railway politics are involved & you'll be pleased to read that I shan't dwell on that history! ]
There was much support for the venture: landowners along the route were keen as it would enhance the value of their rather impoverished holdings. Farmers wanted the railway to get good prices for foodstuffs & there was even the idea that the railway could tap the reservoir of woodland through the county, primarily to support the building of wooden-hulled warships at Portsmouth. At this time, the Admiralty was still commissioning wooden ships for the Royal Navy, but that was to change; initially, wooden-hulled ships were soon to have iron-cladding, then by the 1880s, iron-hulled warships were the mainstay of the Navy, so this source of traffic was quickly rendered redundant. However, in another military connection, the Duke of Wellington put his considerable weight behind the proposal, as he advocated a railway running east to west along (or close to) the south coast of England, to rapidly move troops in the event of another invasion threat from France (as had been the case of course some 40 years before in the time of Napoleon). In the event, the railways were never used for this particular purpose, but it is of interest that a century later, during the Second World War (1939-1945 in Britain, the Empire & Commonwealth), the railway network played a vital part in the support of operations in the reverse direction: the invasion of France by Allied forces in June 1944 to oust the Germans from that country, and eventually the rest of western Europe. I shall comment more on this in the section dealing with the Southern Railway. |
| ... THE ROUTE: The Engineer appointed to survey the route (Captain William Scarth Moorsom, appointed 30th May, 1844) considered that the building of the railway would be an 'easy' prospect. The broad outline of the route was given as: Southampton - Brockenhurst - Burley - Ringwood - Wimborne - Poole - Wareham - Dorchester. In the original prospectus for the new company (Southampton & Dorchester Railway), the exact alignment was not specified (as was common practice), and the section through the New Forest was left to detailed negotiations with the Commissioners. |
| Mr. Castleman** is often castigated in association with his
'corkscrew', but he and his fellow directors were far-seeing in anticipating
the changes & improvements that a railway would bring to an essentially
rural county such as Dorset. |
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| Moreover, Castleman wanted a more direct route, cutting out
some of the deviations that were eventually built - it was Captain
Moorsom who strongly recommended the eventual route & his professional
advice carried the day. Of particular note in the context of the potential traffic (in the local area), these are the approximate population figures for our 'local' towns at the time: Ringwood ~3700, Wimborne ~4500 & Poole ~6000. These figures demonstrate just how sparsely populated Dorset and SW Hampshire was at this time; not only was the population spread rather thinly (a curse to the provision of profitable transport even today in rural areas), there was no heavy industry, no mining and of course vast tracts of Hardy-esque heathland! [**NB: both brothers, Edward & Charles, are named on the various notices posted to advertise the proposed railway, though the former apparently had no hand in the various negotiations etc.] |
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When we look at the route now, we shake our head and point out that it went no-where near Bournemouth! But of course, Bournemouth hardly existed then, and Christchurch was a quiet community at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Stour. In respect of Bournemouth (which was then part of Hampshire - remaining so until the 1970s), this area did have a few dwellings and was slowly becoming known by those that could afford it as a place to go for a benign climate; but essentially where the town now stands was an extensive tract of sand, heather & clumps of pines - hardly worth the expense of building a railway to. Castleman, by the standards of the time, had it about right. In 1845, on the 21st July, the Act authorising the Southampton & Dorchester railway passed with the granting of the Royal Assent. This wasn't by any means the end of the matter, as about this time the 'railway mania' was beginning to fade and many schemes elsewhere in the country had to be abandoned, even after the granting of an Act: for Castleman & Dorset though, the line had enough momentum behind it to go ahead. |
| As noted above, at this time, the exact alignment wasn't decided upon through the Forest. The line had to avoid running through the wooded parts of the New Forest, which was a restraint imposed by the Forest Commissioners. It's also of interest that around this time, a line was surveyed running from Salisbury to Wimborne, joining the main line at West Moors, similar to that which actually occurred 20 years later! |
| ... SURVEYING & CONSTRUCTION: Surveying of the line began during 1845 and given the relatively easy country to be traversed, construction of the Southampton & Dorchester Railway proceeded apace. By November 1846, the line across the heathland of Dorset and towards Dorchester was complete, as was the section east towards Ringwood. The delays were at the Southampton end, principally with the tunnel connecting the existing main line (which ran into Southampton Town station, later Southampton Terminus - now closed) to the new railway, and also across the Forest - where work had started late due to disputes surrounding the exact route to be taken & the provision of stations & crossing lodges. There was no lack of labour to build the railway: farm workers, on a wage of around 9 shillings (45 pence) a week were only too keen to sign on for a navvy's wage of 15 shillings (75 pence) per week. All construction work was 'by hand' - it would not be until the 1880s that mechanical aid was available for construction. The arrival of the band of navvies would have had a significant impact on small farming communities, probably not always for the best. Much of the line ran through heathland of poor worth, where passage was largely uncontested: indeed, local landowners were in the main enthusiastic towards the railway, investing heavily in it, presumably with a view to a tidy profit. Also, given that wood was used extensively (sleepers, bridges, shoring etc.), local estates could sell quantities of timber to the railway. It was at this time that we 'lost' the trackway that left the Ringwood turnpike near the crossing with Uddens water and then passed almost due north to where the entrance to the MoD Fuels depot entrance is now. We can only speculate as to why this was 'cut', but I suggest that the railway would not want to have to build and maintain another crossing lodge so close to the one built on 'Station Road', so simply ran the line across the track without providing any crossing accommodation. In these early days of course, local folk would simply have ignored the railway, its fencing etc., and crossed the line anyway! |
| ... FIRST TRAFFIC ALONG THE LINE: The first 'all-line' engineer's train ran on the 1st May, 1847, principally to demonstrate to the Board of Trade inspector that the line was safe and 'fit' for traffic. The inspector would have been keen to inspect all the bridges (wooden) & crossing installations to make sure that they met the standards of the time. On the 25th of the same month, noted as a 'beautiful, balmy spring morning', an experimental train consisting of three carriages, a horse-box and no fewer than three wagons of equipment (including signalling apparatus - which wouldn't have been a great load for these early railways) left Bletchynden** around 0530 and arrived at Dorchester at 1030. It returned three hours later. Thus the line was ready for traffic. [ **Bletchynden was re-named Southampton (West End) in 1858, though as it was really an 'after-thought' by the S&DR, built at the insistence of local concerns, it was always too small to handle 'main line' traffic. It was enlarged somewhat by late 1860, but by the latter part of the nineteenth century, the L&SWR decided to build a completely new station to the west of Bletchynden / West End, and the original station was first relegated to goods working, then abandoned altogether. It is the 1895 'new' Southampton (West) that eventually became Southampton (Central) in 1935, then just 'Southampton' on closure of the Terminus station. ]
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| ... THE SCENE AT WEST MOORS: What there was at West Moors at the opening isn't clear: certainly a crossing house (see modern-day image) with a gate - though forget the neatly metalled road you see now. The trackway would have been rough at this point - little more than a farm track. Level crossings were 'forbidden' over roads intended for 'public carriage', so this implies that the track (now known as Station Road) wasn't considered of high status; indeed, given the sparse population scattered about the farms up and down the Uddens and Mannington waters, movements would have been light. It's interesting to note that in these early days (and perhaps for some time thereafter), crossing gates were closed across the road/track and only opened on request; this is contrary to the system we have all grown up with where the gates are closed across the railway line except for the passage of a train. A Gate Keeper was in residence in the gatehouse lodge, and assuming that the family hadn't changed by the time of the 1851 census (just 4 years after the railway's opening), then this was a Mr Thomas Bartlett, aged 27 and his wife Elizabeth, both born in Morden, a small hamlet west of Lytchett Matravers in Dorset; this would have been a highly sought-after job, possibly recommended by the estate owner in Morden. By the census date, two children had arrived: John and Elizabeth, and ten years later, in 1861, no fewer than 6 additional children had been born! |
 CROSSING GATE LODGE IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY: THE RAILWAY WOULD HAVE PASSED TO THE LEFT OF THE BUILDING. THIS HAS BEEN CONSIDERABLY ALTERED SINCE ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION IN 1846/47. |
| Many sources mention an early 'halt' at West Moors. Well, given the
links the Castleman, Gulliver & Fryer families had - and that these
families had large holdings of land in the area, it seems reasonable to suggest
that trains could be 'halted' at West Moors on request and an 'ad hoc'
relationship may have developed into a more formal arrangement over time, but
at the moment, I can find no more on this. As this area was essentially a
farming community with very sparse habitation, the need for routine access to
the railway whether for goods or passengers was hardly necessary. However, there was possibly a halt with facilities to offload carriages for onward travel overland to Bournemouth: apparently a special siding (certainly a siding there on the 1901 map & on closure of the station in the sixties) was built at West Moors - this was on the west side of "Station Road" [ not of course known as that until much later ] and enabled the rear-most wagons of a train to be uncoupled and backed into same: these wagons would be a horse-box (with facilities for the groom) & a flat truck for the carriage. It would have been logical, if this was indeed the case, to put this siding here as it was then under the direct supervision of the crossing keeper - the station of course not being built until some 20 years later. |
| It is from this time that a new centre of population (apart from the scattered farms, 'Cob' cottages adjacent to the moor etc.) grew up, clustered around the railway. They probably lived in what were known as "black cottages", so named because they had mud and tarred walls (as opposed to wattle & daub/furze walls of the earlier cottagers). During the first 20 years of the life of the railway, engines and their trains would thunder over what we now call Station Road with little thought - probably a dusty (or muddy) local farm track running down to the Ringwood - Wimborne road. A few farms, attendant cottages comprised the 'community' of West Moors - largely self-sufficient. Only with the arrival of the Salisbury & Dorset Junction Railway (in 1866) did the building of cottages gain some momentum. For the moment though a local railway platelayer, and later (by the 1861 census) there was a carpenter & a school / post-office to the north of the railway. |
| This map attempts to portray what the area we now know as West Moors would have looked like in 1847, on the day the railway opened. The railway is marked, as is the location of the crossing lodge / gate. |
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| Note the scattering of farms along the waterways, which were, and
still are, no more than small streams. The turnpike roads at the bottom of the
map run from Ringwood to Wimborne & Poole, and would have been surfaced
using crushed stone and reasonably well drained. The small green squares are my
best attempt to locate small households, such as small-holdings, individual cob
cottages etc., based on later maps and analysis of the census returns. Treat as
the 'best guess' locations. I'm confident though that they give an accurate
indication of the density of occupation - note that the bias to the hamlet is
well north of the railway. As regards the 'School' and attendant chapel (and
integral accommodation for schoolmistress), there is considerable doubt over
which side of the track-way (later Station Road) this was: my suggestion is
that it was on the western side of the lane - and only moved to the 'heathland'
side in the late 1850s. All other 'tracks' though vary from lanes made by the constant passage of horse-drawn vehicles over many years down to well-trodden footpaths across the moorland. This map cannot be considered to be exhaustive as many footpaths would have been used that never appeared on any lists of the time. The track crossing St. Leonard's Common & Woolbridge Heath was 'cut' by the railway and fell into disuse, hence the modern-day peculiarity of the sharp 'dog-leg' Station Road - Newman's Lane - Three Legged Cross Road. |
| ... THE FIRST PASSENGER TIMETABLE: | ||
This is the first timetable for public railway
services on the Southampton & Dorchester Railway.  One thing to notice that would have had an immediate impact on the local community: two trains in the middle of the night! The 'up' Mail passing the crossing just before midnight and the 'down' at around 2am. To a community only used to the lowing of cattle or the barking of a dog between dusk and dawn, this was a dramatic change in the 'pace' of life & perhaps it would not have been a welcome one. |
There would also have been, if not immediately,
then within a few months, one goods train in each direction - running between
these passenger timings. Note that trains are faster 'down' (i.e. away from London / towards Dorchester), than 'up': why this should be I'm not sure. The average time taken from Southampton to Dorchester is around 3 hours 5 mins (fastest 2 hr 55 mins), whereas in the other direction, the average time is 3 hr 30 mins (fastest 3 hr 10 mins). |
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| ... WIDER ASPECTS OF THE COMING OF RAILWAYS TO RURAL BRITAIN:
Early attempts were made by some parliamentarians to ensure that the whole country benefitted from the arrival of the railway rather than simply putting money into the pocket of the shareholders & landowners, often one and the same entity of course. In particular, William E. Gladstone, via the "Regulation of Railways Act, 1844" tried to bring some measure of 'social justice' to the crude advance of rampant capitalism. Amongst other provisions in the Act, railway companies were obliged to run, at least one train per day with a fare not greater than 1 (old) penny a mile, to stop at every station and to travel at a speed of at least 12 m.p.h. Passengers had to have seats (albeit pretty rudimentary) and be protected from the weather - this did away with the open trucks used in the early days for third class passengers. These trains became known (and were often listed as such in timetables) as 'parliamentary trains'. Bearing in mind that the average wage of a manual worker / farm labourer was probably not more than 8 to 10 shillings (around 40 - 50 p) a week at best (Hardy reports 6 shillings in the poorer areas of the county), even with these trains, a journey between Wimborne and Ringwood, for example (~10 miles) would cost (return) some 20 (old) pence, or about 8 p, a sizeable proportion of that wage. The railways in the United Kingdom grew apace and by 1854, 92 million passenger journeys were made across England & Wales, roughly half of those at 3rd class or parliamentary rates of ticket cost - a truly staggering figure when you consider how 'young' this method of communication was; the modern equivalent would be the growth of the internet, or the spread of the mobile phone. Also, more goods traffic was carried than passenger - the split being roughly 54% goods to 46% passenger. It was a 'boom' time as people found that they were not bound by the pace and range of the horse. |
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